China Tightens Grip on Social Media

'Slanderous' Content Reposted 500 Times Will Result in Charges

BEIJING—Chinese authorities said that social-media users who post comments considered to be slanderous could face prison if the posts attract wide attention—a ruling free-speech advocates criticized as an attempt to give legal backing to the suppression of online dissent.

Internet users will face charges of defamation—and a possible three-year prison term—if they create slanderous content that attracts at least 5,000 hits or is reposted at least 500 times, according to the judicial interpretation, copies of which were posted to state-media websites on Monday.

The document said slanderous posts that cause "psychological imbalance, self-mutilation, suicide or other serious consequences" would also be considered defamatory.

ENLARGE

A woman users a computer at an Internet cafe in Chongqing.
Getty Images

Social-Media Rules

Offense (Penalty)

Rumors get 5,000 hits or reposted 500 times (Up to 3 years in prison or loss of political rights).

Company makes 50,000 yuan or more in profit for deleting posts/intentionally posting rumors (Up to 5 years in prison and fines up to 5 times amount of illegal gains).

Individual makes 20,000 yuan or more in profit for deleting posts/intentionally posting rumors (Up to 5 years in prison and fines up to 5 times amount of illegal gains).

--Source: Xinhua

Companies and people who seek to profit from slanderous postings face stiff fines and jail terms. People who start online rumors will be considered guilty of the crime of provocation and incitement, a crime previously applied to those who vandalize property, pick fights or create trouble in public places.

The new interpretation—jointly issued by China's Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the top prosecutors' office—provides Beijing with an added legal basis for its long-running effort to control conversation online.

Lawyers criticized the new ruling as overly broad and an attempt to discourage government critics. "What's the point in even discussing this?" wrote lawyer Liang Xianglu. "Law is not a root that will ever truly grow in this patch of earth. Instead it will always be a stick wielded by a bunch of thugs."

Another lawyer, Wang Kesheng, wondered on his microblog account how the new rules would have affected Luo Changping, a journalist whose posts led to the dismissal of a top official this year.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted the Supreme People's Procuratorate spokesman Sun Jungong as saying the new interpretation isn't intended to discourage Internet users from exposing official wrongdoing.

"Even if some details of the allegations or what has been exposed aren't true, as long as [Internet users] aren't intentionally fabricating information to slander others...they won't be prosecuted on charges of defamation," Xinhua quoted Mr. Sun as saying.

Authorities in charge of propaganda have grown increasingly jittery over the spread of social media, in particular Twitter-style microblogging services like Sina Corp.SINA-0.02%'s popular Weibo, which have challenged state media's previous dominance in disseminating information.

In recent months, the government has stepped up efforts to manage online activity, detaining dozens for spreading rumors and warning influential microbloggers with large numbers of followers to watch what they say.

Many posts critical of Monday's interpretation were deleted within hours of being posted.

Among the recent detentions were two men apprehended by Beijing police on Aug. 22 on suspicion of creating rumors in an effort to gain followers on Weibo. State media said the pair falsely claimed that an outspoken major general in the People's Liberation Army was a deserter with family living in the U.S., in addition to spreading other untruths.

Beijing police also announced last month that they had detained a local newspaper journalist, Liu Hu, on suspicion of provocation and incitement, though police didn't say why.

Several local media reports said that a week earlier, Mr. Liu had forwarded a social-media post alleging wrongdoing by a top official at the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, a business regulator.

Those cases and others have prompted questions from some lawyers and scholars about whether and how criminal laws should be applied in cyberspace.

In a report published Thursday and since deleted from its website, the influential Southern Weekly newspaper challenged the use of the charges of provocation and incitement in online cases.

The report quoted legal scholars who argued that the crime applied to actions that have negative consequences in physical public spaces like markets and airports, not in cyberspace.

The report also noted that defamation was a matter for a civil lawsuit, not criminal prosecution, except in cases where the defamatory statements "seriously threaten social stability or national interests."

By expanding the scope of both crimes to cover online activity, the new judicial interpretation "violates the principles of criminal law," said Xu Xin, a law professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Mr. Xu took particular exception to the expanded use of provocation and incitement, which he described as a "catchall" crime that is often abused by authorities. "The legal community has been calling for this crime to be eliminated for years," he said.

While admitting that rumor-spreading is a problem on Chinese social-media sites, free-speech advocates argue that authorities often define rumor broadly as anything that doesn't appear on state media, which is rigorously censored.

The expanded threat of prosecution prompted an outpouring of gallows humor on Sina Weibo. A number of postings joked that, instead of asking influential users to repost messages, they would instead start asking not to have their messages reposted.

Others forwarded along a new slogan: "If you love someone, repost him. If you hate someone, repost him, too."

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.